Reviews
Level1Wizard's Review: Live Journal
No self-respecting geek can claim the title without having seen Firefly, or Serenity, or both. (Also, no self-respecting geek can avoid making blanket statements encompassing and defining all of geekdom. It's what we do best.)
Joss Whedon is the voice of a generation. He writes the characters we all wish we had been at age 17, and the dialogue we all want to have at the tip of our tongues. When l'esprit d'escalier strikes, it's a Joss line we want to run back into the room and shout, "Five minutes ago I should have said ___!" If you have not seen at least five minutes of every project he has ever worked on, you are doing yourself a disservice and are a shame upon the name of Geek.
Fangirl blathering aside, SerenityMUSH is a genuinely good game in its own right.
Set in the Firefly universe post-movie, it's a Penn-based MUSH that utilizes HSpace and comes with a coded econ and cargo system. (If you like that sort of thing. I'm all about the RP, myself.) There are usually about 20-30 people connected. Players can own ships, businesses, hotels, even skyplexes like Niska's. Most of the planets and moons mentioned in the series and movies are accessible by an easy-to-use and not-too-expensive shuttle system. On any space-based MUSH, being able to planet-hop is absolutely essential. At 2am CST on a Thursday with four non-idle players online, you must be able to get from Persephone to Newhall without taking an hour of RL time to get there and start your scene.
The greatest thing about this game is, without a doubt, the admin.
All the admin are named for the feature characters (Mal, Inara, Kaylee, etc. There's even an Oaty Bar admin.) I like this, since as a PC I really don't feel like running into Jayne on a regular basis; since he's already a hero in this story, that diminishes my role as a player. Also, he would kick my ass.
There is almost always an active, on-duty, non-dark admin available. Every one of them is responsive, enthusiastic, and polite, and only once have I seen a miscommunication between admin result in a confusing ruling for a player. This was addressed immediately and with apologies on the part of the staffer involved. Even cooler, every couple of months Mal and Inara (owners of the game) host a live OOC chat via in-game, Yahoo Voice Chat, and Teamspeak, specifically to allow players a chance to tell them what they're doing wrong (or right.) I have never seen MUSH admin go to this length to create an open forum for airing ideas on making the game better.
One minor quibble I have with the game is the chargen process. It's extensive, which is a fine design choice on their part, but this creates a sometimes significant lag time of up to 2-3 days to get a character created and into play. Admin have to read all of the answers to the background questions (there are 15 questions) and review and discuss it. Then any issues or disagreements are addressed with the player, which often involves going back to tweak your +sheet, update your background, and repeating the cycle again.
After chargen is over, you're set down on the Eavesdown Docks and allowed to join a crew, hang out, get a job, whatever stokes your engines. Choose a crew carefully, since you'll be obligated to always make sure your character logs off on the ship, and while in the air (sometimes flight times are 3+ RL hours) you're going to be stuck with only those half-dozen people to play with. This is rather like working for Microsoft: your experience and enjoyment level will depend entirely upon which group you're in.
Quality of RP is on the medium to high range. There are a large handful of one-line posers who take a minimalist view on punctuation. These are in stark contrast to the somewhat smaller handful of players who deliver professional-quality writing and storytelling. Most fall somewhere in the mid range, but I give them bonus points for being on the whole very familiar with and dedicated to the theme. Additionally, there are a few very active plot-running admin who will pull players of various skill levels into scenes together on a regular basis. These plots might range from world-affecting kidnap/murder plots to, in one case, a ship being infested with a small and very hard-to-capture rat. Creativity levels are high in this game.
Despite the inconveniences inherent in a space-based game and the lengthy chargen process, the admin and some truly fine RPers make this a great translation of the Firefly theme and a fun place to play.
SerenityMUSH rates: 4 out of 5 Great Old Ones
http://level1wizard.livejournal.com/1023.html
